Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

Health Insurance Mandate Haunts Romney

The parallels between the federal health law and the Massachusetts health overhaul that GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney signed into law when governor continue to cause some Republicans to doubt him as a their primary pick.

The Washington Post: A Key Bloc Of GOP Voters Agrees Only On Disliking Mitt Romney
The anti-Romney activists, many of whom identify with the tea party movement, say they are hesitant about Romney because they simply do not trust his conservative credentials, recalling his past support of abortion rights and a health-care mandate (Bacon, 10/9).

McClatchy: Is Romney Right On 'Obamacare?' Depends How You Count
Mitt Romney is adamant: "I will press for full repeal of 'Obamacare,' which will save hundreds of billions of dollars." But the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office — whose data the campaign has cited as the source of its assertion — says that the 2010 federal health care law should cut deficits $210 billion from 2012 to 2021. The bottom line: "It's actually not known who's right," said Amitabh Chandra, economist and professor of public policy at Harvard University (Lightman, 10/9).

Also in the news, Bachmann's abortion-sonogram bill -

The Texas Tribune: Bachmann Abortion-Sonogram Bill Not Modeled On Texas
Her proposal came ahead of the Family Research Council's Values Voters Summit on Friday ... Bachmann's bill would require that, before performing an abortion, a doctor conduct an ultrasound, show the patient an ultrasound image, describe the image to the patient and make the sound of the fetus’s heartbeat audible to the patient if possible (Titus, 10/7).

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